Sims 4:In The Seasons
by bbghotaru
Summary: Sims are speculating 'weather' and 'seasons' happening in all the worlds. (T for Language and adult themes). Cassandra Goth now has THREE siblings, thanks to Bella having twin girls! She now has to deal with the two terrors, and puberty giving her romantic thoughts about Don Lothario.
1. chapter 1

Rumours were flying around fast, as was speculation for what caused the sudden temperature increase in Oasis Springs, as well as the sudden temperature decrease in Forgotten Hollow. Every forum, chat room or research website stated that it was the result of a new season tester. All any Sim could talk about were the temperature rises and falls that happened so suddenly, and what their theories were as to why this was going on like this all of sudden.

Every Sim in every world knew this was happening, as the News radio station and the Sim Daily News TV Channel were talking about it, going to the lengths of calling it suspicious supernatural activities, and telling Sims to stay indoors with their families and not go outside or to work or school until the situation that Simanity was in was confirmed to be safe enough to remotely step on their front doorstep.

Days went by and slowly curled into weeks, and weeks became months, but months didn't become years with no news,quite so soon as every Sim thought it was. Finally, it was Simtember the 3rd, and news had just broken of an impromptu rainstorm in Windenburg, and a blizzard in Forgotten Hollow, as well as miscellaneous rain showers in Magnolia Promenade and San Myshuno. The speculation, of course, was soon no more, as Simanity was experiencing what was dubbed 'weather' and, of course, 'seasons', which were happening naturally, without any need for Alien interference or any machine.

Months went slowly by as Sims were still forbidden from going a metre from their houses, but were allowed outdoors in their backyards, as a compromise. The situation was still not safe enough for Sims to go to the marketplaces, so Simgov were knocking on doors with bags of groceries for each household so the Sims in each household were able to cook some food and avoid death from starvation. Every Sim rose slowly out of bed each day, knowing that they would be unable to go to work, go clubbing, go to a public swimming pool, a spa or even a cafe in Newcrest for a romantic date, because Simgov had classed this situation as 'near fatal', and that was a big step.The most recent time a situation was classed 'near fatal' was when Goth Manor almost fully burnt down a few years ago, and even then, Cassandra and Alexander helped their family extinguish the flames, it had been a few days of work, the Goths temporarily moved to Brindleton Bay, their Manor was refurbished, renovated, and restored to it's former glory, while things slowly went back to the way they were before the fire happened, and all the Goth family was alive and well.

Sims from all over the Worlds discussed all possibilities of the potential 'seasons', but all Sims came to the same conclusion, and that was that in whatever world a Sim lived in, the 'weather' in said world would be a little bit, but still distinguishably, different. The toddlers, teens and children of Oasis Springs were happily playing under the sprinklers, the families of Forgotten Hollow were having ten-generation snowball fights, and small families with their first child in San Myshuno were stamping their rainboots in rain puddles. Willow Creek families were also experiencing this, except by diving into piles of leaves and doing a family harvest that had been done since great-great-great-great-great grandmother Goth was born.


	2. Chapter 2

Elder Sims waded in the pools in their backyards while young Sim children and teens confidently dove into the dark blue waters of the same pools. Windenburg had finally gotten it's own summer weather, after having countless 'spring' storms, some areas even getting the odd bit of hail. The sun was shining, and all of Windenburg was rejoicing in it's summer weather, where all families were splashing, drowning each other in hot tubs, choking every couple in the sauna, licking radically flavoured ice creams and sipping on iced drinks. Everyone seemed to be having fun, but the seasons had only just begun for everyone, including the Sims of Magnolia Promenade, who are currently celebrating a generally happy Winterfest, thanks to an impromptu blizzard, which left snow coating the grass and rooves of every home. Citizens of Willow Creek were busy raking leaves, of course- while sneeky children dove into the leaf piles whilst their parents' backs were turned.

Sims of Brindleton Bay were getting a little bit of wintery weather, as they donned their beanies and mittens when they looked at their world's well-known beach in the mornings, when the air was so icy-cold that Sims could see the steam evaporating from each other's mouths. But the temperature increased throughout the day, soon ending the day at a not-quite-stable twenty four degrees celcius. Willow Creek, of course, was in full autumn swing, and many aristocratic Sim families came over to visit their families, or more importantly for the children, dive into a newly-raked pile of red, yellow and brown leaves, while Sim parents watched on in horror, with maybe a couple of facepalms included for the full Willow-Creekan experience, as Willow Creek was probably the most secluded world from all the updates of the Gen Z era. But, Selvadorada and Granite Falls were the only two worlds really left out of the buzz of these 'seasons', as for both locations, it was an easy hit-and-miss 'business as usual', and they were getting less and less tourist traffic.

No Sim felt left out. Every Sim was either indulging themselves in a much needed hot cocoa or snowball fight for winter, splashing in excessive rainpuddles and stomping in rainboots for spring, clinking ice-cold lemonade and swimming in pools for summer or raking leaves and trying to force their children to resist the undying temptation to jump in a pile of leaves. Everything felt just fine-families were having fun, toddlers were splashing around in kiddie pools or playing in the snow, and babies were being born, business as usual for the Sims and their families, no public holidays, no days off school- it was just like it usually was, baby boomers, toddler troubles, defiant children, teens on tyrades, young adults and adults exchanging parenting advice, elders going to annual bingo, as normal as a Sim's life could be. Finally, it felt like the gods had answered their prayer of being let outside- Simgov weren't force trapping all the Sims in their homes, they were _finally_ allowed outside!

It was a very hallelujah moment for them, it felt kind of surreal. They were _finally_ allowed to get that assignment in, they were _finally_ allowed to have baby showers and host lavish parties at bars and go clubbing! It was definitely surreal, it almost felt like a dream for them.

The Goths felt as if they were no longer the centre of attention for all Sims, they felt a decent weight lift off their shoulders...


	3. Chapter 3

Bella Goth walked through the corridor to the living room where her husband, daughter and son sat on a fancy red couch, talking to eachother whilst Latin music played in the background from their stereo. She smiled at her small family and sat down with them on the couch, on the left hand side of her husband, Mortimer, and they began an animated conversation about what they did at work, while Alexander and Cassandra walked to the counter to grab a plate of the slowly cooling Mac-N-Cheese that Mortimer had cooked, and talked about homework over dinner. Bella and Mortimer were laughing over a joke that Morrimer made up about working in their respective careers as they were seated across from their children, who were seated at the heads of the dining table.

"I think I got an F for my volcano project," Alexander admitted, glancing down at his Mac-N-Cheese.

"That's not true, Alex, it couldn't have been that bad," Cassandra denied with a shake of her head and ate yet another mouthful. "It wouldn't have been worth much of your grade anyway. I flunked my Solar System project in fifth grade, and I remember it only being worth around 15% of my grade. Dad yelled at me though, so I'm not the best one to ask about not telling Dad and Mom, though you won't get in _as_ much trouble as I did."

Alexander gulped. He definitely wouldn't have wanted to be in his sister's shoes if their parents had yelled at her for flunking the solar system project back in fifth grade. Then again, his parents _were_ science obsessed control freaks, so they would get mad at someone if they failed something relevant to science, especially a solar system project that Cassandra did in fifth grade, especially since she usually got a pass, just above or a stable B or C grade. Knowing his sister, Alexander guessed that his sister would've been _really_ peeved off about being told off by Mortimer and Bella. Also by their stupid expectations to always have stable grades in everything, especially science. And the volcano project he got an F on _was_ for science, so he'd be pretty much dead meat in Cassandra's books. He prayed that he didn't say his grade loud enough for his parents to hear over their own chatting, because, if they had actually managed to hear his grade, he would be getting yelled at until the Cowplants came home. He braced himself for the lecture that he definitely wasn't ready for.

He quickly ran to his room and hid is project and grade underneath his single bed, and raced back downstairs to finish eating his half eaten Mac-N-Cheese, as well as sneak in more of a chat with his older sister, Cassandra, on distraction strategies. He knew that she was the best one to ask about these sorts of things, because of how well she hid her D grade that she had gotten on her Simanities essay on the history and culture of Selvadorada, which, for the record Cassandra thought was absolutely rigged for those kids that had actually gone there on holidays with their families, since they'd be the highest culture skill and be able to write down everything they'd learnt on their holidays.

"Alexander Goth! Alexander Jocasta Goth! I found _this_ in your bloody bedroom! Explain _this_ to me!" Mortimer yelled, and flapped the paper that showed Alexander's 'F' grade.

"Don't be so hard on him, Mort," Bella suggested from where she was seated in the chair on the right of Cassandra.

"Blimey, Bella! This is an 'F' grade! On his volcano project! It's a disgraceful thing to do! Completely and utterly _disgraceful_! It's a bloody disgrace to this family! To this bloody perfect lineage!" Mortimer howled.

"Shut up, Dad! Shut up! Just shut up, please! This is just how you were when _I_ failed _my_ Science project all the way back in _fifth grade_! Honestly, this is ringing some alarming bells! What's worse is that both you and Mum yelled at m-" Cassandra ranted but was cut off by her mother shushing her.

"Shh, please shush Cassie," Bella said calmly but briskly, "let your Dad ramble."

So Cassandra just sat and watched on as Mortimer scolded Alexander about his grade on the project and sent the poor child to his room to rethink why he would fail his volcano project that could probably determine whether his grade in Science was a pass or a fail. Bella then went upstairs to let Alexander down again, and then she told him that she was going to get dressed for a Summer Celebration Pool Party, which made no sense because it was the middle of Autumn, but Alexander bought the idea anyway and walked downstairs to meet with his sister for homework help. They were always the good kind of siblings, Alexander and Cassandra, always happy to lend eachother a helping hand.

"Mum has taken a good fifteen minutes getting changed, and Dad is upstairs as well, should I be worried at all?" Alexander finally asked after they had finished a good chunk of homework.

"Yeah, but leave 'em be," Cassandra responded, not wanting him to go up there. Last time she went up there when that was going on scarred her for life.

"Should I go up and check on Mom to see if she's okay?" Alexander asked.

"No way, Josè!" Cassandra replied, wanting to protect her little brother. "Just leave 'em be, as I said. They'll be down in just a minute, I'm sure of it."

"I'm going up, Cass, and you're coming with me," he said, getting up and helping Cassandra out of her chair, "Enough is enough."

"No, Alex, please!" she yelled.

But still, Alexander persisted and led her upstairs, step by step until he suddenly heard strange music and saw hearts coming from the bed. He didn't understand what it meant yet, though, and so, Cassandra, wanting so badly to protect her brother, dragged him down the stairs, and continued helping her brother with his science homework, avoiding the biology section.

Mortimer and Bella walked downstairs with their sleepwear on, and Bella went to the toilet.


	4. Chapter 4

Bella sat on the edge of the bed, trying to put together the bits and pieces of her conversation with her brother, Micheal Bachelor, a few moments ago. He didn't seem _overly_ thrilled to be an uncle for the third time to his sister's _third_ child, but maybe he was busy. He was _the_ Micheal Bachelor, day and night, and, of course, hottest businessman to the extreme, and had many girls constantly throwing themselves at his feet twenty four seven, seven days a week, four weeks a month, twelve months a year and so on. Of course, as Micheal was a busy man, he could've easily been busy and was annoyed to take the call from Bella, as he would've instantaneously assumed that it was one of his colleagues asking if he had taken those notes, or if he could send the SimmerPoint, or email them the spreadsheet, which was understandable. Bella imagined being a business woman, frequently getting angry emails from her boss, frustrating calls from colleagues, and typing out spreadsheets constantly, twenty four hours, every day of the week. Even then, Bella still thought he would've managed to find the spare time to answer the call, and sound _genuinely_ excited for her when she had told him that she was pregnant. She thought at last a "Congrats, Bella!" or a "Congratulations, Bells!" would've been nice enough and left her decently satisfied with bothering to call him about the new addition.

"Alexander, Cassandra! Up here, please!" Bella called for her two children with a half hearted smile on her face.

Alexander and Cassandra walked up the stairs with happy smiles on their faces, since they had just conquered a load of Simanities and Maths homework together, with only Alexander's curiosty in the way of a perfect run of homework. Bella ushered the both of them to sit on the edge of the bed, and Mortimer held a fake emotionless expression so he could decide what emotion to feel, depending on what the kids made of the news, since they always made Mortimer and Bella's job a little bit harder, because they always had different emotions and thoughts on things than they thought they would've.

"So..." Bella began as she fumbled for the right words. "So, guess what, kids?"

"What?" Alexander and Cassandra asked in sync, in an obviously annoyed tone.

"Kids.." she began again, and paused to gulp, still not sure how the two would take the news. "Kids, I'm...I'm pregnant?"

At first, all the kids thought about was the fact that their mother phrased it as a question rather than the news at hand. Then Cassandra started to feel a little bit embarrassed and sheepish, because she'd actually guessed this, and that's what she'd tried to hide her brother from. The WooHoo moment with Mortimer and Bella in the bed, which Cassandra had tried in vain to make her brother avoid, but, as the saying says, curiosity killed the Sim. He _saw_ the hearts fly out of the bed and the pillows flying up and crashing down valiantly, and still was determined enough that it didn't seem as if it had scarred him for life, but she could tell it had from when she dragged him away from the music and commotion. She glanced at Alexander who was opposite Bella, wearing the same expression as Cassandra.

Bella glanced at her two children, waiting anxiously for at least Cassandra to respond to this news, but even Cassandra seemed vacant, awkward, embarrassed, allbeit not excited about the fact that she would be getting a new sibling, whether that were a brother or sister. Let alone that Bella fell pregnant in Autumn, or as the Goths had labelled it, 'The Lucky Season', as it was the season when most of the Goth family was born, and they practically worshipped it. Cassandra was an autumn baby, as was Alexander, even Mortimer and Lolita were lucky autumn babies, it felt as if it ran in the Goth bloodline to be an autumn baby. Bella, however, like Micheal, was not an autumn baby. But what did it matter, they were all a family and they all stuck together, through thick and thin, and they supported eachother until the Cowplants came home. Except, this time, it was a rather silent moment that Bella received, upon delivering the news of the new baby to Cassandra and Alexander.

"So..that's...that's..." Alexander choked on his words. "That's what you were doing. In the bed. Last night. That's what got Cassa scarred for life. That's what you did. And what's worse, you did it to me too."

"I was trying to stop him, I swear! I said to leave you be and he didn't! He came up here! He saw the hearts! He heard the strange music! He saw the pillows! Mom, I can't believe you! Why did you lie to him?" Cassandra spat. "Don't you care about us? Don't you care about what we see and hear? Don't you care? Bloody hell, Mom, bloody hell!"

"Cassandra!" Mortimer lectured from the back of the room.

"Cass...I thought...I thought..." Bella began, choking on tears. "I thought that you'd be happy for me.."

"I am, Mom, I am," Cassandra assured. "It's just..."

"She wanted to keep me safe, Mom. She wanted to be a good sister to me," Alexander finished.

Bella gave her son and daughter a hug and cried on Cassandra's shoulder. If only Bella hadn't said anything to Alexander when he had asked what was going on up there. If only they hadn't been up there for a suspiciously long time. Bella thought about it, and smiled. Maybe the kids were right all along. Maybe no news at first is the real good news.

Bella went downstairs and started cooking a serve of pancakes for her family. A party serve and two family serves, just so they had enough to go around. Just so they had enough to go around for Bella, Mortimer, Alexander, Cassandra, and future baby Goth. It was always good to have more than enouh just in case anyone wanted seconds in Bella's mind.

Bella and Mortimer sat at the heads of the dining table and ate together, with Alexander and Cassandra sitting next to each other.They both smiled at her.

"Congrats, Mom!" Cassandra said.

"Yeah, congrats Mom," Alexander echoed.

As if on cue, Micheal calls.

Bella picks up her mobile. "Hello?" she whispered into the phone.

"Congratulations, Bells!" an ecstatic Micheal Bachelor congratulated on the other side.

"Thanks. Thanks everyone," Bella responded, but to the whole table this time.

Everyone smiled. _Just another day in Goth Manor_ , Cassandra thought, with a hint of a smile on her face.


	5. Chapter 5: Worry

Mortimer waited for Alexander to bicker with Cassandra, but they stayed silent and Mortimer let them continue on with their homework. Bella was at the Willow Creek Hospital, getting a check up on her little baby, and she'd made the decision to leave them with Mortimer for the morning. Not that, of course, she would be there, at the doctor's clinic, for the whole morning. Bella wanted to have coffee and cake with Micheal and Lolita after after the ultrasound. Of course , she knew it wasn't on to have four cups a day if she wanted a healthy baby, and it's not like she wasn't going to be stupid enough to drink alcohol during a pregnancy. She always knew that it was a dumb idea to drink while pregnant. Mortimer was cooking the kids their favourite, vanilla and strawberry pancakes, which he knew they would eat in heaped piles, and in Alexander's case, half a cup of maple syrup poured on top with strawberries on the side. Last time Mortimer had cooked was a few nights ago, when he made mediocre Mac-N-Cheese for his family's dinner. Of course, that time, he had nearly burnt his hand in the process, and so he was resorting to either having Bella cook for him or paying the pizza delivery guy fifteen simoleons for a few family size pizzas.

Of course, since Bella was heavily pregnant, she had to go to Willow Creek Hospital every few days for an ultrasound, which was just to check up on the baby. Mortimer decided that, before breakfast, Cassandra and Alexander would finish the homework that the teachers had assigned for them to do on the weekend, which they always insisted on completing together. The homework the duo had been assigned was nearly complete, thanks to the two of them working on it together. Mortimer was proud of the two, unlike himself or his pancakes. He was never proud of his cooking, because he knew that Bella's cooking was always much better than his. He came into conversations when he wasn't needed, Bella spoke up about things when she felt it was the right time to speak up. He felt vacant and away from it all frequently because Bella was always the better parent, she always told Cassandra and Alexander to do their homework, she always told them not to speak when they shouldn't, et cetera.

Mortimer went to the dining table with his plate of pancakes and sat at the head seat of the dining table. He chuckled at his son and daughter doing their homework together. Cassandra got up, Alexander afterwards, and both ran upstairs to their rooms to put their homework in their school backpacks, dashing down and grabbing a mediocre, sloppily made plate of pancakes, quickly sitting down to eat after the flurry of activity they had just done. They both panted and started to eat slowly,while glancing at their father who was also awkwarldy glancing at them.

"Dad?" Cassandra piped up. "Dad! When's Mum going to be home?"

"I've no clue, to be honest," Mortimer admitted. "Last time your mother told me how long she'd be, she'd said about three or so hours."

"No secret reunions with Aunt Lolita and Uncle M?" Alexander suggested, hint of a questioning tone in his voice.

"Dad.." Cassandra's voice broke and trailed off. "Is mommy okay?"

Mortimer wasn't sure how to respond to Cassandra's query, mainly because she hadn't asked this question since Bella was pregnant with Alexander. Mortimer set his mind back to one day, where Bella was heavily pregnant with Alexander, at the exact time that Cassandra asked him, in a flood of tears, if Bella was okay, and, if not, whether she'd get better soon. She was only eight years old at the time, and was the whiz kid at school, always telling people what she learnt from her daddy. Cassandra thought the world of her parents, and loved them until the end of the Simverse and back. She really loved Mortimer, and science back then, and it showed to everyone that she was a down and out Daddy's Girl. She would always go to Mortimer if she needed help with any science related homework. Even now, Cassandra still loves Mortimer, as well as the science subject at school, and always aims to do her best in whatever she does. She even tried her best on the Simanities essay on Selvadorada, where she failed, earning a D plus for her grade on the essay. She moaned about that essay to this day, especially the fact that she thought it was really rigged. Cassandra always moaned about things when she didn't think that things were going in her favour, which she thought happened quite a lot.

Cassandra was sitting in her room on the edge of her bed with Alexander seated on the second bed in the room, which was blood red. They were talking about Bella and future baby Goth, and all mannner of other baby related things, such as the baby's name and gender. Both kids wouldn't mind a sister who was a little bit different than the rest of the Goth family. Someone who was bi, and not straight, someone who liked pastel colours or even someone who was genuinely fun and outgoing, not the general grump in the family. In fact, a lot of what Alexander and Cassandra heard at school was gossip about her parents, especially that their parents were 'depressed grumps with no sense of fun or joy in them', which was the opposite of the truth, and Alexander and Cassandra knew that all too well. They knew that it was in the Goth nature to get more angry, frustrated or sad than necessary in any given situation, but the Goths still had inside jokes, laughed, were happy for eachother and had fun, with Mortimer even doing a spot of clubbing.

There was a knock on the door, and it opened to reveal a heavily pregnant Bella, who, as she walked in, was pelted with hugs and kisses, as well as a multitude of questions. The kids ran downstairs and talked to Bella, Cassandra in tears.

"Cassa, it's okay. Mum is fine," Alexander assured his hysterical sister, wrapping his arm around her.

"M-mummy, are you okay?" Cassandra squeaked through tears.

"I'm fine, Cassie, it's okay," Bella answered, and gave her teenage daughter a hug.

"Do you know if it's a boy or a girl yet?" Alexander asked.

"I'm s-sorry mum..I was worried.." Cassandra apologised but was cut off by another flood of her own tears.

"No, Al, I don't. Once I find out, I'll let you know," Bella replied. "It's fine, Cass. I'm glad you worried. There's nothing worse than hearing your Mum is in hospital."

Cassandra sniffed and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. "I'm so happy for you, Mum," she spoke.

Cassandra ran up and hugged her Mum, and Bella hugged her back.

"I'm so excited too," Bella agreed, with a smile.

Bella was in her final weeks of pregnancy, and wanted to find out what gender the baby was. The day would come soon though, she knew it.


	6. Chapter 6: Names

Cassandra laid in bed, having a very intricate dream about a day at school, where she had girls insulting her because of her large scale crush on Don Lothario, the most well known heart breaker in the whole of The Simmy Way. She had a few girls slamming insults at her as hard as fifty one kilogram dodgeballs in her dream. She felt dizzy, and she heard a weird screaming sound, followed by a ringing sound that was echoing through her head constantly. She opened her eyes and slid out of bed and heard the moan again, except, this time, she knew exactly where the noise was coming from, her mum. Bella was moaning in pain, and she was in her third trimester of pregnancy. She groaned as she bent down to get some water, knowing that the baby would come out any moment from now, since she was so close to being in labor and done with this baby that it hurt her back when she needed to stretch in the morning, after she got out of bed. She knew that the torture of having a baby for the third time would be over soon, third trimester of pregnancy would be over more sooner than later. She went, grabbed a glass of water and sat down at the dining table where she drank her water, a contemplative look etched into her features. She heard footsteps coming downstairs and turned, but it turned out to be just Alexander, Cassandra and Mortimer walking to the sofa and dining table, talking cheerily. Mortimer slipped into the dining chair next to Bella with a plate of fish tacos which were ready to eat. Bella got up, grabbed a plate of fish tacos, and placed them in front of her, where she slid in, on the seat right next to Mortimer's. Alexander and Cassandra sat at the heads of the table, placed their plates of fish tacos in front of them, and began to consume them, discussing homework, future baby Goth and school in between forkfuls of fish tacos.

Once again, Goth Manor was like the normal family home, people laughing, chatting and partying inside of the humble home. For a while, all the gossip about the Goths on any form of media, print or electronic, had died down, and nobody spoke much about them, except at school, where poor Cassandra was getting bullied by the apparent 'cool' clique. But, it was fine for them. The press wasn't pouncing on them for news, news and more news about future baby Goth. They weren't taking notes about Cassandra's alleged relationship with the most well known heart breaker of all time, Don Lothario. The press were leaving the Goths alone for the first time since the first rumor was leaked of Don Lothario and Cassandra in a relationship, which they then found out was fake when they pointed out that it was from an apparent parallel universe, which explains how Cassandra was an adult in the photo when she is only a teen. Anyway, all the spark they have is Cassandra's one sided crush on Don, but nothing else. She does think of sending him a love letter, which only Alexander knows. Alexander is the main person Cassandra confides in, normally.

"Mum, do you know what gender the baby will be yet?" Cassandra asked.

"Yes, actually. A girl," Bella answered happily.

Alexander had always wanted to play big brother to a little sister, so he was very excited when he heard that news. "Really?!" he asked, in shock.

"Yeah, lil bro," Cassandra confirmed. "Mum's even got a signed doctor's paper to prove it."

She flicked the paper over to Alexander so he could have a look at what it said about future baby Goth. It was a girl, three days until it is predicted to be born, and it's another autumn baby for the Goth family. If it was his child, he'd name her Pandora Goth, which he felt had a nice ring to it. Mortimer Goth, Bella Goth, Cassandra Goth, Alexander Goth and a potential Pandora Goth. It actually had a good ring to it, since it would be relevant to the cliche of the family's personality, but it also sounded beautiful. He liked Greek mythology the most out of any member of the Goth family. He also liked the sound of the name Venus Goth. It sounded, calming maybe, and maybe a sort of name you'd sing in a lullaby. He also thought about potentially naming it Neptunia Goth, which also sounded quite elegant. He didn't know why he was thinking about baby names anyway, but he sort of enjoyed it, in a way. It was almost as if it was therapeutic.

He walked upstairs to his room, where he felt the most comfortable and calm, and wrote down notes about potential baby names for the now confirmed female future baby Goth. Cassandra walked upstairs to write in her diary about the sort of day she had had. She had fast running writing, so spent a lot of time on the diary entry, probably writing about a solid three thousand words in around two hours flat. She was a bit of a grammar nazi, so did make sure that, in spite of her quick writing, that she checked and corrected every grammatical and spelling error that she made. She then had a sit down and read a couple of eBooks on her tablet, or as she labelled it, a Slablet, because it ran really slowly. Alexander knocked on Cassandra's bedroom door, and it opened.

"Come in," She whispered from her bed.

"Hey, Cassa. You bored there?" Alexander asked, obviously jokingly, with a smile.

"Nah, not really. I'm excited for the little girl, though I know it'll mean either Mum, Dad or I getting up early in the morning to satisfy her screams," Cassandra answered, with an offbeat laugh.

Alexander grinned. "True. But I'll help you keep up with homework, okay?" He suggested.

"Yeah, sounds great, Alex," she responded. "What've you been doing?"

"Thinking of baby names for the girl," Alexander replied. "Guilty. 'Chu gonna frame me in court?" He laughed, and grabbed his notepad.

He opened it to the page titled 'Baby Names' and told Cassandra his ideas.


	7. Chapter 7: A Surprise Case

Bella groaned as she got out of bed and stroked her stomach that felt painfully sore. She tried to avoid waking Mortimer up, because, although she felt sore, she didn't want to wake Mortimer up painfully early because she felt as if she was in labor. She walked to the sink, and got on with her normal daily routine, which, of course, contained filling up and drinking a glass of water at the kitchen sink. She sat down with her glass of tap water and drank it quietly, and felt nervous as she felt she was waking up Mortimer and the kids. She washed out the glass and put it on the kitchen bench, not thinking that it might give away that somebody was up incredibly early on a Monday morning, because it was five in the morning, after all. She walked up the creaking stair case and quietly slipped into bed and fell asleep, being careful not to wake up Mortimer or anyone else in the process of doing so. But, soon after Bella had begun to drop off into a peaceful slumber, she felt a horrible pain in her insides that surged through her entire body. She felt incredibly uncomfortable, and the feeling felt relatively similar to one she had had twice before. She felt very much like she was in labor. She nedded to get to the hospital, pronto, and woke up a startled Mortimer in the process. In a rush, she and Mortimer ran as fast as their legs could take them to Willow Creek Hospital, and in a flurry of yelling and groaning, were checked in to get the baby out of Bella. She laid on the examination bed, grunting and groaning as if her life depended on how much she grunted and groaned. Soon, not one, but two babies were out of Bella Goth's stomach. Two! Bella was astounded. And they were both girls, too!

Mortimer grabbed one baby and rocked it at the same time as Bella grabbed the other baby and breastfed it, and then burped it, putting it back down afterwards. They carried both the babies home with them, and placed them in indenitcal bassinets in their bedroom, giving them little kisses on their tiny foreheads. Both the little ones had a short nap, before one of them began to cry. Alexander nudged Cassandra, and both of them ran as quickly as they could up the staircase, and came to the landing where they both split in different directions across Bella and Mortimer's room, eventually finding the babies in identical bassinets next to Bella's huge cupboard, which both knew was filled to the brim with all sorts of red clothing garments. Bella heard the commotion, so she and Mortimer both walked back up the staircase to their bedroom, where they found Cassandra changing one of the little girls's diapers, and Alexander cooing at the other one. Both Bella and Mortimer smiled as Cassandra put one of the girls down, and Alexander stopped cooing at the other, temporarily, of course, because he loved them lots. Bella and Mortimer tapped both of the duo on the shoulder, and both spun around.

"Two?!" was the first thing to come out of Alexander's mouth, in an exasperated breath.

"You said you were only having one!" Cassandra gasped.

"It was a pleasant surprise for the two of us as well, Cassie, don't worry," Bella told Cassandra, but was meaning to direct it at both her and Alexander.

"Cassandra, I was the one to first sigh in relief when we got the first one, but come out of the hospital as surprised as you two are, all wide eyed and open mouthed," Mortimer confessed.

"What are we going to name them?" Cassandra asked.

"I wasn't exactly _prepared_ for the two of you to have _two_ babies like you did," Alexander began. "But, I was prepared name wise. I think that it's safe to say that we have a Venus Goth and a Pandora Goth? Or maybe I'll let Mum and Dad name one."

The family did agree on Pandora for one of the girls, but not so much Venus for the other girl. Bella decided she'd name the other girl, since there were two girls. They had a Violetta Goth and a Pandora Goth, two names that both Mortimer and Bella agreed on being good names for the two twins, who were having a nice relaxing nap in their respective bassinets. Cassandra smiled when she heard the names that Bella and Mortimer had decided on, especially Pandora. She thought that it was nice that her parents had taken into consideration one of Alexander's baby name suggestions, of which she had been shown yesterday. She wondered what the two would look like as toddlers, even though she could probably have a wild guess and say that they were going to look exactly like everyone else in the family had, pale skin and black hair. Though Cassandra's dominant genes were for black hair, she also had recessive genes for light brown, sort of like an auburn shade, hair. So, really, the recessive genes could overpower and result in two identical pale skinned brunettes. That was unlikely as anything ever could be, but still wasn't exactly impossible either. Bella smiled at the two kids and the babies, went to bed and fell asleep until she heard a cry from the bassinet that she assumed belonged to Violetta. Shoot, Violetta was crying, it was the start of the normal routine of going to sleep, waking up because of the baby crying, falling asleep again and waking up, all on repeat every single day of the week. She had been able to tolerate not going through that bloody routine twenty four seven, but she had to now, with twin baby girls needing her to answer their every beck and call every hour of the day.

Then, there was a cry from Pandora.

"Morty, I need you to get up! The twins need our attention!" Bella yelled to wake Mortimer up.

"Yeah, yeah, Bell, leave me be for around five more minutes," Mortimer mumbled.

"No, not five minutes, Morty, now, please," Bella instructed impatiently.

"God dammit Bella. You're so high maintenance," Mortimer groaned.

"Don't mock me! I'm your freaking wife, for Maxis sake!" Bella screamed. "Now, feed Violetta before I snap!"

Mortimer groaned again, almost like his much younger self did with Cassandra. He got up and fed Violetta, who cried and slapped the bottle out of her mouth. Mortimer put her down. Feeling frustrated, he picked the baby back up again and began to feed her.

Bella breastfed Pandora, and then put her down again. She watched Pandora fall peacefully asleep, and then laughed a giant laugh when she saw Mortimer failing to successfully feed Violetta.


	8. Chapter 8: Twin Toddler Difficulties

Bella watched as her teenage daughter and tween son walked down the street to school, with her husband following closely behind as they faded down the road. She sighed, as she knew she would be all by herself, looking after two twin babies, bless her tortured soul. She heard a cry, which she just manage to work out was Pandora, from upstairs. Frustrated, she trudged upstairs and went to Pandora's bassinet, picked her up and breastfed her, and then put her back down in her bassinet, in which Pandora fell asleep in happiness. Then Violetta cried for Bella, which made her run, change Violetta's diaper and breastfeed her in a flurry. Bella placed a sleepy Violetta in her bassinet in which she had a rest. Even though Bella was finished with pregnancy, she only drunk water or soda water, both of which she drank from a glass she refilled at her tap, which she only went to in times she felt she needed it, which was definitely right now, since she had just dealt with two twin babies, who she felt were ready to age up sooner or later. She felt she needed to look up places you could go with toddlers, which she basically knew was practically nowhere where she wanted to go, like libraries, public pools or fancy resturants. She needed to work out somewhere that you could definitely go with toddlers where she lived, in Willow Creek. The babies were soon going to be beautiful toddlers, and she wouldn't have to worry about them as much, except for, of course, painting and furnishing a bedroom for the two little terrors. She could also build up one of those flatpacked ballpits that Mortimer had bought for Alexander when he was a toddler a few years ago. She smiled and had a short rest in her bedroom for a little while, thinking about the babies and what they might look like when they grew into toddlers. Brown hair wasn't impossible for the two, even though practically everyone in the family had had black hair, apart from Lolita, who had auburn hair and a bright smile that could light up any room that she was inside.

Bella woke up to feet walking around in the house that belonged to Mortimer, Alexander and Cassandra. She smiled and waved the three to the dining table, and she made everyone fish tacos for their dinner, which they loved and had probably had a thousand other times when Bella had cooked for them, so the whole family knew it well and loved it. Cassandra and Mortimer went up to see the twins, and watched as the two troublesome babies jumped into their arms as auburn haired tots. Cassandra was bent over Pandora, teaching her to walk. Mortimer was bent over Violetta, teaching her how to talk, and then he leant down, brushed his hand over his jet black hair, and began teaching Violetta how to walk. Pandora was now stumbling around the top floor of the house, while Cassandra tried to pick her up so she could go down the staircase and do Pandora's hair in small spacebuns at the top of her head. Mortimer put a bow in Violetta's short hair, and with a spin, the toddler got changed into blue top with silver overalls over the top, with small sneakers to complement it on her tiny feet. That's how Mortimer worked out Violetta would be a little bit of a tomboy, if anything of the girl types. Pandora was wearing a small bee outfit, coloured leggings and blue mary jane shoes. She was a little bit girly and a little bit of a wild child. Cassandra sat her down in her respective high chair and handed the wild toddler a bowl of chicken nuggets. Mortimer had cleared the twins a room upstairs and was hammering their pink coloured beds together, bit by bit, while Bella was painting their bedroom.

"Come on, stop slapping your food off your plate and eat it!" Cassandra instructed.

"No, I want snakes!" Pandora screeched from her high chair.

"No! You're not getting snakes until you eat the nuggets I give you!" Cassandra yelled back, exasperated.

The toddler shoved the nuggets off the high chair's table and Cassandra made her third batch of chicken nuggets to give to a Pandora whom she hoped was finally grateful for getting given what Cassandra had tried with all her might to make and get the wild child to eat. Cassandra sighed, and handed the toddler her third batch of chicken nuggets that she prayed wouldn't get shoved off the table area of the high chair, then walked upstairs to see Mortimer hammering together Pandora's magenta framed bed, which was a few metres across from Violetta's pastel pink framed bed. Bella was done painting the room for the happy toddlers and got changed, with a spin, into her usual red dress and black leggings combo. Cassandra went downstairs to get started on her science homework, and also to help Alexander out with his own science homework, of which he was going to battle with. She got started on the biology section of her science homework, and directed Alexander to where he should begin with his own biology homework. She hoped that she and Alexander would get it in on time for school tomorrow, even with the madness of two twin female younger siblings that made constant messes wherever they went. She and Bella carried both the toddlers upstairs to their bedrom which was painted to look like a sunset. Pandora rushed to claim the magenta bed, stumbling, and nearly falling, in the process of doing so. Violetta then waddled as fast, and as carefully as she could, to her well painted, pastel pink framed bed.

"Cassandwa, kissy me night night," Pandora told her.

"No! Not even if you say please! I'm tucking Vi in, thanks very much!" Cassandra snapped.

"Mommy, Cassie's being mean to me!" Pandora screeched.

"I'll kiss you, cheeky head," Bella chuckled and leapt on the toddler, giving her a kiss on the forehead and tucking her in.

"Cassandwa, can you wead me a stowy?" Violetta asked.

"Sure, beauty," Cassandra replied, and positioned herself on the bed with a book she knew Violetta would like.

Bella left the room and began cooking everyone spaghetti bolognese for dinner downstairs. Mortimer went downstairs and began to clean up Pandora's mess that she had left from Cassandra's failed attempts on feeding the defiant toddler chicken nuggets.


	9. Chapter 9: Cassandra's Favourite

The toddlers were awake, and they were the first of the Goths to consider having a sibling rivalry against eachother. Both Pandora and Violetta have a mutual hate for eachother, which, for Pandora, was when Cassandra picked Violetta over her as the favourite twin last night. Pandora continually told Violetta to move out of her section of the room and not not go on her bed, both of which Violetta had timidly agreed to, even though she didn't really like people going against her, for unspecified reasons. She disliked being disliked by others, and Pandora knew that fact about Violetta. Pandora shoved Violetta out of her way, and began marking her territory with cardboard streaked with aqua lines, which she felt was perfect to show Violetta who was boss, and then she stumbled over to her huge cat teddy bear that Cassandra and Bella had both teamed up to heave out of the broom closet near the stairwell. She babbled to it about how much she disliked Violetta and how she got every slice of attention that the twins got ever since the were born, and then added that she thought Violetta was dumb and deserved to be taken away. She waddled away from the cat teddy and threw a tantrum so Cassandra would carry her downstairs and feed her some lolly snakes, which she liked to eat as many as she could. Cassandra sighed, and lifted the annoying toddler up, placed the, now wriggling, toddler in her highchair and then began making her chicken nuggets, which she prayed, for the fifty zillionth time, that Pandora wouldn't slap off her highchair bench.Cassandra smelt the chicken nuggets, smiled, walked over to Pandora's highchair, gave her the chicken nuggets and watched her eat them, hoping in vain that she didn't slap them off the highchair bench. She filled Pandora's sippy cup with milk, calmly walked over, and placed the milk filled sippy cup on the high chair tray table with a hopeful smile on her lips, which sent a message to Pandora that she hoped it wasn't going to waste. The Goths were one of those strange families that, although characterised as depressed beings, actually smiled and had a hell of a lot of fun in their lives, whether they wanted to admit this as the truth, or not, of course, for either was possible.

Violetta was upstairs by herself, still quite annoyed at Pandora for for forcing her out of freedom. The auburn haired child stared at her half of the room in frustration, but then had a bright idea that might just bring her back the good old freedom she had learned to love. She grabbed one of the cardboard barriers that Pandora had put up in order to restrain the toddler from entering her half of the room, went to Bella and Mortimer's room and whizzed it underneath the king sized bed. Violetta then innocently waddled and stumbled back to the bedroom, but not for long, since she had worked out a way to get up and down staircases. She used this method to clamber down the staircase on all fours and not hurt herself in the process. Cassandra was downstairs with Alexander, doing homework. Bella saw Violetta, picked her up, slid her in her high chair, and gave her some animal crackers and watermelon juice. Violetta ate her crackers, and then sipped on her watermelon juice from her sippy cup. She then asked to be takrn out of the highchair, which Bella did, walked away, and let Violetta be free to explore the world around her. Violetta clambered back up the staircase, waddled to the room that she shared with her twin, Pandora, and sat on her bed, looking content. Pandora threw one of her classic 'bring _me_ upstairs' tantrums, and a very annoyed Cassandra came, collected her, carried her upstairs, let her down and prayed that they would become children soon, so Alexander could possibly be a role model for them—apart from the test debacle a few months ago, which she was glad the toddlers weren't alive to witness it, or even old enough to understand what it was that made Alexander hide his test results. She sort of wished the two would grow up now— just so they weren't as bothersome, Cassandra and Mortimer could sell the highchairs to someone, and they were able to feed and look after themselves. Though, of course, Cassandra shuddered at the prospect of buying the two tiny tots new beds that would suit their personalities.

Cassandra stormed down the staircase, agitated, and went on to continue with her Maths homework, which had even a master mathematician confused—she had taken the liberty to call up Micheal Bachelor, her uncle, and ask him what the answer to that bothersome maths question that she absolutely couldn't for the life of her figure out what the answer was. Obviously, neither she or her uncle knew the answer, so she considered herself beat on the ridiculously hard mathematical equation that had no answer to it. She began to contemplate guessing, which is what she ended up doing. Hopefully her Maths teacher wouldn't call her out on her silly mistake of guessing when she showed him the completed homework in class tomorrow. He might even let her off this time, like he does with those kids with a million different after school activities that don't get their homework done, and have only an empty homework book to give him. It was only one question, though. Cassandra put her homework book in her backpack, put her backpack in her room, and sat down on the edge of her bed with a thoughtful expression on her face. She reserved that expression for thinking about one particular young adult male, Don Lothario. She knew it would cause serious problems, but she felt a need to get engaged to him. He was so handsome, his skin tone was a pale tan, and he looked immaculate in whatever he wore. Cassandra sighed. She'd never let Cupid hit her heart with this big of an arrow.

"Cassandy, Pandowa's being mean to me!" Violetta whined.

Cassandra wrapped the toddler in an embrace. "I-I fink she hates me," the toddler added.

"Why would she hate you?" Cassandra asked.

Violetta sniffled. "S-she h-hates m-me b-because I'm your favwit," she replied, frowning.

"She'd have a decent chance at being my favourite if she behaved," Cassandra admitted.

"Behave?" Violetta whispered with a tilt of her head.

"If she was good and nice to people," Cassandra explained.

"Y-Yeah.." Violetta's muffled voice trailed off for a moment as she wrapped Cassandra in a warm embrace.

"Do I behave, Cassandy?" this was asked so innocently from Violetta that she had to laugh.

"Yeah. You behave very well," Cassandra laughed and ruffled Violetta's hair.

She picked Violetta up and whizzed her around in a plane like motion before dipping her up and down, towards the ground. They were both laughing messes by the end of that.


	10. Chapter 10: Admitting The Truth

Cassandra smiled, for today was Halloween and her birthday, for which she was excited. She was going to be a young adult, and be able to finally tell Don Lothario about her feelings, which of course would be acheived by travelling all the way to Oasis Springs in the bus, which is currently the only method of travel which would arouse the least suspicion in the family of where Cassandra had been. She would just have to wait until everyone was at school or work, and Bella was left to take care of the toddlers herself, or had taken the children to the park, which meant Cassandra could quickly sneak off to the bus stop and wait for the next bus. She walked downstairs, got the birthday cake out of the fridge, carefully placed eighteen candles on it, and blew all eighteen of them out, signifying the beginning of her time as a young adult. She tied her hair into a braid that laid on her left shoulder, which she thought looked beautiful. She smiled, spun, changed into her everyday outfit, which was a pair of short overalls over a black shirt, trudged carefully back into her room, and began selling all the old stuff she couldn't use anymore, like her homework book and diary, and began purchasing a laptop, a new desk, some speakers and stereo which was placed near to the now extremely cluttered desk. She then waited for the rest of the household to wake up from their eleven hour slumbers, which happened very gradually. Mortimer left for work, Alexander left for school and Bella left with the twins to go to the nearest playground, leaving a young adult Cassandra Goth all by herself. Cassandra ran, caught the tram, waited as it stopped at each stop, and it had finally stopped at Don Lothario's house after a one and a half hour tram ride, where she had a thousand men asking for her name and address. She ran out of the tram, paused for a panting fit at the doorstep, took a really deep breath, and knocked on the door. A young adult male, who was none other than Don Lothario, answered the door. Cassandra was anxious and panicked about the man that she had had this secret crush on for a while now, without her parents knowing. Don smiled at Cassandra, which made her eighteen year old heart skip a beat. Don waved the poor young adult female inside, and made the two of them pancakes. She had heard poorly said rumours that Don was a womaniser and dangerous, but she didn't believe either of those for a second. Don smiled as both of them sat down with a pancake stack and ate it. Cassandra told Don, in a nervous flurry, that she had had a crush on him since she was thirteen years old, but she hadn't been able to tell him about it until today, when she aged up into a young adult, snuck out of the house and caught the tram all the way to his house. He embraced her after being told this, and whispered into her ear that he also loves her, but truly, not a fake love that lasts for two months and then they dump you as soon as they find someone who they consider better. Don exchanged numbers with Cassandra, typing his number carefully into her phone, while Cassandra anxiously typed in her number in his contacts. They then got back their own phones, added names to eachothers contacts, and had their first kiss right there and then.

Cassandra smiled as they both pulled away from the kiss they had just had on Don Lothario's front doorstep and were about to walk back inside, when Bella stopped them from going any further in, and she was firing questions at Don as fast as any human could. Bella marched Cassandra all the way back home, with the twins in tow, which took approximately three hours to do so. Before Bella could say anything when they got home, Cassandra had rushed upstairs to her bedroom, hid under her bed, and began sobbing her heart out very loudly.

She couldn't believe her mother had forced her away from the love of her life, Don Lothario, just because she couldn't trust her and him together. To Cassandra, it had shown her and the twins what their mother could do in a situation like this one. She angrily came out from under her bed, hid under her bed covers, began crying again, and thought of her Mum separating her from the love of her life. This, and the fact that Don wasn't her first love, this guy that her friends set her up with was, Matt—but he had dumped her three weeks after the duo had begun dating, and it broke her heart.

"Cassa, are you okay in there?" Alexander asked a shut door.

"No," Cassandra whispered, but loud enough for it to be heard from the other side of the door.

Cassandra began crying into her pillow again as soon as she had let her brother inside her newly decorated bedroom, and barely looked up at him when he asked what was wrong. She didn't want to tell her brother about what happened with her and Don, because she knew he would be a little ticked off too, so she had said nothing. She sat on the edge of her bed, sobbing into her hands, barely bothering to answer his questions about her welfare.

She was glad her little brother was concerned about her, but it was hard to explain the premise of forbidden love to a child, whether they were your brother or not. It was just really difficult explaining your forbidden love experience. She just needed a hug, a shoulder to cry on, and someone of appropriate age to explain it to, but out of all her younger siblings, Alexander was the one who would best understand. In fact, out of the whole household, there was nobody who could understand her better than he did. Maybe she should brave it and tell him.

"Cassa, please tell me what's going on in your head," Alexander pleaded.

"Well, early in the morning, I snuck off to tell Don my feelings," Cassandra began. "Mum and the twins were at the park, you were at school and Dad was at work. I thought it was the perfect time to catch the next tram to Oasis Springs, where Don lived, so I did..."

"Then?" Alexander questioned, raising his left eyebrow.

"Well, he let me inside, gave me breakfast, and then I, over our breakfast, owned up about my feelings for him. I'm a foolish young adult that wanted to meet the love of her life," Cassandra continued. "I— well we sort of exchanged numbers and kissed."

"And then Mum caught you with him, asked him a heap of questions, and marched you back home," Alexander finished.

Cassandra cracked a smile. "Yeah, it was about that," she admitted.

She and her younger brother gave eachother hugs, and then split up to look for the twins.

 _Maybe today wasn't so bad after all._


	11. Chapter 11: Telling Bella

Alexander glanced at his older sister and froze for a moment in his tracks. She had told him about her crush on Don Lothario five years ago, where her hormones started taking over her and she blushed every time she saw the man cross the street. But, it felt like he had only heard this news for the first time, but he'd known about her crush on Don for five whole years now, though he never knew she would go as far as to sneak off to his house by tram. Alexander was glad his sister had told her about this, because he certainly wouldn't dream of being forbidden from seeing Olivia Spencer-Kim-Lewis, the girl he had met in Study Club at elementary school a few weeks ago, that he had a small, innocent little crush on, which was one thing he had told Cassandra, but not his parents. They would probably be fine with it once they had been told about it, though, because he knew his parents would be fine with anyhting, as long as he told them about it beforehand. Cassandra glanced back at her brother, hoping that he would have been told the news before Mortimer had. One thing about Mortimer that Cassandra didn't like was that, because he was their father, he thought he could scream at Cassandra and Alexander as much as he wanted, which was a side of him that only they had seen, and not the twins. It was unfair, but when the twins grew up to be childen, they would learn how ungrateful and mean Mortimer would become over the simplest of things, like grades and the like. He would not tolerate bad grades if it was science related. Cassandra smiled and thanked Alexander, and asked him if he could keep his lips sealed about what he had just been told. He nodded and he headed over to his own room, not before quickly passing by the room that belonged to Violetta and Pandora, or, as he liked to call the two, the Demon Twins, which sounded a suitable nickname. Those twins bickered more than Dina and Nina Caliente had in their entire lifetime, which was a fair call, considering Dina did set a record for how long she had bickered with Nina, which was around five hours, a record that the twins had probably surpassed by now. He heard them bickering yesterday afternoon, and had argued until eleven pm at night, which was when his parents were usually sound asleep by. They had probably lost their voices by the time they had finished. He listened in at the wall, and sure enough, they were arguing their tiny heads off. Those twins were odd ones, the amount of times they argued with eachother each day. They were always arguing, even about who's toys went where and who's side of the room that each toddler was allowed in. They were the first of the Goths to consider a sibling rivalry, but certainly not the last, as far as Alexander could see.

Cassandra sat on her bed, tears prickling at her eyes as she tried to brush them out, but she couldn't, because the flood just kept on coming, coming and coming. She leant over to the nearest pillow, cried on it for a while, heard a knock on the door but didn't bother to let the person in. It was probably her mum, Bella, telling her off for sneaking out of the house to see Don Lothario, as usual. She just didn't trust Cassandra when it came to her love life. Cassandra felt like she always knew what was best for herself in her love life, and didn't need people like her mum messing with it like this, and this frequently. It was one of her pet peeves in life, that her mum never let her do what she wanted anymore. Her mother tried to be her bodyguard, but Cassandra never wanted that sort of restriction in her life, not one single bit. She just wanted her mum to let her love who she wanted, whether she wanted her to love them or not. Can't there ever be a mother in Willow Creek that respects that their daughter has a love life and shouldn't have a mother bossing her around, telling her who to love and who not to love? Is it against the rules to have your heart _choose_ the person you wanted to fall in love with and not your family? Because Cassandra felt as if this was the case in her life.

Cassandra sniffed at looked at the poster of Albert Simenstein on her wall and wondered if she could somehow be like him, in the way that he had the option to take freedom. He was a social outcast, failed school, dropped out of school, pursued science, and was the first to figure out what the relativity theory was. He was a smart man, and she wanted to be like him in the way that he chose freedom, and ran away from the way worlds were set up back in his time. She looked at Albert Simenstien as a role model, and she had looked at him that way since she was a toddler, when her father, Mortimer taught her to love science for the art it was. She loved science for what it had taught her about life—and no, she didn't mean biology. She liked learning that everything was a mixture, and that she was made up of trillions of cells that died and were reborn every single day of her life, and that each cell performed special jobs. She loved how science taught her to love life for what it was, a gift.

Cassandra heard another knock at the bedroom door, and this time, got up and opened it. It was Bella, of course, in all her Bella Goth glory. Cassandra led her mother inside her room and slid on the edge if the bed next to her.

"Cassandra, I'd like to talk to you about what happened this afternoon with Don," Bella began.

"And how you'd love to mock me, ground me and forbid me from seeing him for the rest of my days," Cassandra moaned, looking forlorn.

"I..." Bella paused. "I...I...I would never forbid you from seeing Don, who appears to be the love of your life, but.." She began again. "But I didn't want to sneaking off to see him. You could have just told me you liked him and I would've let you go on the tram."

"Mum...I love him a lot, and I've only been brave enough to tell him my feelings when I'm a young adult, and it's all the more appropriate," Cassandra admitted.

"I know, but you could've told me you were going, and that you liked him. I was worried about you, honey," Bella spoke.

"But, I love him! You can't change that, Mum!" Cassandra repeated. "For Maxis sakes, respect that your daughter is now a young adult and should be able to make her own choices."

Bella hugged Cassandra, Cassandra hugged her back and Bella let what her daughter had just said sink in. She was glad she'd had this chat.


	12. Chapter 12: Funerals and Finale

Bella woke up, after resting up for a good thirteen hours, got out of bed, and got changed into her signature red dress that screamed 'Bella Goth' as soon as anyone saw it. They admired Bella for her beauty, which she had to admit wasn't all genetic. She was beautiful, no doubt about that, but some of it did come down to the make up she put on in the morning that was always hand in hand with her red dress, black leggings and black heels. Today, though, Bella was putting together her outfit for a special occasion, which was the funeral of her father, Simis Bachelor, and her mother, Jocasta Bachelor, as well as the funeral of Gunther and Cornelia Goth, her husband, Mortimer's parents. Funerals weren't special occasions for the Goths in the way all the other families in Willow Creek thought. Most of the other families thought a funeral as a mourning of loss, and then a party afterwards, where men ended up drunk, and everyone was supposed to be celebrating the deceased life, but instead were in the midst of a room filled with horrible dad jokes, theories surronding their favourite shows, like _Sim Trek_ and little kids trying to explain the Relativity theory while running laps around a tiny corner of the room. But, the Goths weren't like every other family in Willow Creek, mainly because they thought and did funerals a different way to that of most of Willow Creek's families—even though they had the same, super depressing ritual at the start. They begun with your averagely depressing beginning ritual, where someone stood up, said a speech, then everyone cried, then all sung a hymn that they would see them again, for the family members that the funeral was for are now Ghosts, tied between the Netherworld and Willow Creek, and afterwards, did everything a little bit dfferently. Four family members would carry in the coffin while another two carried out the gravestone, which they would put precisely where the body was buried, still within the coffin, and then they would wait for midnight that night, which was the exact time the ghosts of the deceased would come to visit the Sims that were still alive, haunt Goth Manor a bit, and then talk to the still living members of the Goth and Bachelor households about their lives in their coffins. Afterwards, at precisely three in the morning, the ghosts would come and collect the offerings the Goths had left them, and then leave the house, not to be seen until the same time periods. This year was the same as every funeral year before it, apart from the fact that there were Bella's new children, Violetta and Pandora, who would probably have an argument over who Gunther and Cornelia, as well as Jocasta and Simis loved more out of the two, coming as well, as well as Cassandra's new boyfriend, Don Lothario, coming with the six.

Bella wasn't excited for this funeral, as it did mark the death of Jocasta and Simis, but she knew Mortimer felt the same about losing his parents, Gunther and Cornelia Goth. Bella went downstairs, walked to the kitchen, and began making Pan Du Muerto, which was the main dish the family would have on funerals, as it would mark the time at which they would begin their morning. It was probably the most well known dish for the Goth family to make, and the press even asked Bella, when she had opened a restaurant—which was closed a couple of years before Alexander was born—if she would make and sell Pan Du Meurto at her restaurant, which she said wasn't possible.

She sat down with her plate of Pan Du Muerto, began eating and then waited for the rest of the Goth household to wake up, which she knew from experience, wouldn't be a very long time. An exasperated young adult female came downstairs, carrying a whining Pandora, praying she can give her Pan Du Muerto, which she did end up eating. Cassandra sat down with her own plate of Pan Du Meurto, began eating it, and had a group conversation with Bella and Pandora. Mortimer came downstairs, an all fours Violetta in tow, lifted Violetta up, placed the wriggling toddler in her high chair, gave her a bowl of Pan Du Muerto, and then sat down with his own plate of the food.

Cassandra temporarily excused herself from the rest of the household, went on the tram to Don Lothario's house in Oasis Springs, and both ran to Goth Manor, panting when they got back to the house and gave eachother kind smiles. They had their funeral at the Goth family graveyard, did the normal depressing ritual at the beginning, and then went to place the gravestones in the middle of the graveyard, while Lolita engraved their epitaphs, and stood by the gravestones in pride.

Cassandra surveyed the graveyard and then she and Don left the graveyard for Brindleton Bay, which was in a full spring swing at the moment, where they would go to the foreshore and have a date together, and maybe a swim in the ocean, as both Cassandra and Don had bought their swimwear with them, intending to have a swim together afterwards. They both smiled as they splashed eachother in the ocean and ducked down, heading to the boathouse afterwards for some fish and chips.

They smiled with lovesick eyes at eachother, and began to drink a vanilla milkshake with two straws in it, and they sipped and sipped until their lips touched one another's for a kiss. They blushed and began eating awkwardly, and then the two began to make their way to the graveyard, until they saw a particular headstone at the beach, and Cassandra stopped them.

"What's wrong, Sandy?" Don asked.

Cassandra blushed awkwardly at the pet name, and then began to cry. "Th-this," she squeaked, and lead Don to an angle at which they could both read the engraved headstone.

The engraved message read, ' _Loving older brother and uncle, Micheal Bachelor. Son of Simis and Jocasta. Son in law to Gunther and Cornelia. Loving older brother to Bella Goth, and a caring uncle to Cassandra, Alexander, Violetta and Pandora. Brother in law to Lolita and Mortimer. May you forever rest in piece. Died by drowning.'_

Don quickly phoned the rest of the Goth family, and they were there as promptly as they could be. Don was seen comforting Cassandra when the family arrived.

"Cassa, are you alright?" Alexander asked, and then looked at the headstone. "Pinch me, Cassa. Tell me that this is a horrible nightmare..."

Alexander read the headstone's engraving to the twins. "Uncle Mickey, come back, pwease come back Uncle Mickey!" they shouted in sync.

"He's a ghost now.." Lolita began. "H-he'll haunt this beach and Goth Manor at midnight, but gosh knows where he'll haunt first."

Everyone was in tears.

But Cassandra thought about something. _This is nowhere near the end. In fact, it's only the beginning._


End file.
